nothin State Senate Debate Pits Experience vs.… | New Haven Independent

State Senate Debate Pits Experience vs. Generational Change

You’ve been there too long and haven’t pushed the needle far enough.

No, I’ve put in the time to win over people and pass progressive laws that otherwise wouldn’t get passed.

That’s one way to summarize what candidates said in the latest local campaign political debate.

The debate pitted incumbent Democratic State Sen. and Senate President Pro Tem Martin Looney of New Haven against two challengers: Republican Jameson White and petitioning candidate Alex Taubes. The three candidates are competing for the 11th State Senate District seat, which represents parts of New Haven as well as Hamden and North Haven.

The 60-minute livestreamed virtual debate featured the candidates answering questions from Moderator Tom Breen of the New Haven Independent, Angie Durell of La Voz Hispana, and Babz Rawls-Ivy of the Inner City News and WNHH FM’s daily Love Babz Love Talk” program.

Forty years is too long to be serving as a state legislator, the challengers argued. That’s why New Haven gets less than 50 percent of the money it’s owed under the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT), the challengers argued. That’s why rich people don’t pay enough in taxes (according to Taubes) or too much (along with everyone else, according to White).

Alex Taubes, Jameson White, Martin Looney at Wednesday night’s deate.

Experience has enabled Looney to gain trust among colleagues to deliver more PILOT funding to New Haven than to any other Connecticut city, and more PILOT funding overall than any other state in the country, Looney countered. It will enable him to fight for more PILOT funding by building a coalition in the suburban-dominated legislature by broadening PILOT to cover more small towns, he argued.

We’ve tried the same leadership for 40 years now. This is a progressive district. It’s time to try something else,” Taubes argued.

So much depends on experience and seniority level in the legislature. I continue to see it as an honor to serve. I still get a rush of excitement every day when I get off the highway exit at the Capitol and see the gold dome,” Looney declared.

The candidates differed on Donald Trump. He’s a disaster who’s dividing the country and costing the state tax dollars, Taubes and Looney said. He’s irrelevant to Connecticut, and besides, Democrats are responsible for Antifa burning down cities, White argued.

Looney called for a 1 percent statewide property tax that would be used to redistribute more money to poorer towns that are disproportionately hurt by the state’s heavy reliance on property taxes. Good idea, but not enough, Taubes argued. Bad idea, White argued.

That is going to affect renters more than anyone else” when landlords pass along the cost, White argued.

It will help urban renters by lessening tax burdens in hardest-hit cities, Looney responded.

The candidates were asked about a long-running proposal to allow for red-light cameras that would automatically fine drivers caught speeding. Looney said he’ll support it if urban legislators of color who previously opposed it come around. White said he’s not a fan” of the idea. Taubes spoke of a broader revolution” needed in transit policy and design.

They spoke about a lot else too. Looney, while the most senior participant, ended up providing the most forceful jabs at his opponents when the candidates got to ask each other questions (beginning with a 2014 quote he dug up in which Taubes called Madison diverse”).

Instead of subjecting you to more verbiage about that here, I recommend you watch the debate in the below video. The part where candidates zinged each other came with 10 minutes left.

Or check out these superb highlights prepared by New Haven’s master-of-pith Tweetmaster:

By the way, here’s a map of the district:

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